Cormier 2007: Diet and child behavior problems: Fact or fiction?

Nurse with parent & child

Pediatric Nursing. 2007 Mar-Apr; 33(2): 138-43.

This review is intended to help nurses support parents who want to try various therapeutic diets such as the Feingold diet, oligoantigenic (few foods) diet, or gluten-free, casein-free diet for their children.  The nurses are advised to listen sympathetically and to provide recommendations to nutritionists if needed.  The “empirically sound literature” the nurse is to provide is not specified, but neither the Feingold Association nor any GFCF resources are suggested, which makes it unsurprising that the author expects parents to find such diets very difficult.

In spite of the vaguely negative tone, this is not a bad review of the literature, including the earliest article seen so far relating diet to behavior (Shannon 1922).

QUOTE:  “Parents need to be aware of the difficulties and limitations these diets impose on the family as well as possible nutritional deficits. They also should be informed of the
potential for parental bias and dietary placebo effects. The pediatric nurse plays a key supportive and educational role in helping families comprehend these realities, arrange consultation with a nutritionist if indicated, and provide objective evaluation tools to measure change if the diet is attempted.”

NOTE:  Somehow the word “actually” keeps wanting to insert itself just before “attempted.”   I also found it interesting that neither the ketogenic nor the diabetic diet were mentioned at all.  Apparently, they are in a different category; not diets one should be prepared to talk the parents out of trying.

MedLine || Full Text || Get Password

NOTE:  The Shannon 1922 article mentioned above is an interesting read, if only for its strangeness to today’s ears.  See Abstract || Full Text (use same password as above)

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